Guide to the Bruins' offseason

Wednesday

Jun 18, 2014 at 2:11 AMJun 18, 2014 at 2:19 AM

The offseason is officially upon us in the NHL.

By Dan CagenDaily News staff

The offseason is officially upon us in the NHL.

The Bruins have already been in that mode for a month, with exit meetings nearly four weeks ago following their second-round loss to the Canadiens. On Monday, general manager Peter Chiarelli made his first move when he told long-time enforcer and fan favorite Shawn Thornton that his services were no longer required.

The coming days and weeks are sure to be filled with rumors and reports of varying accuracy. First let’s review where the Bruins stand as the NHL’s silly season commences.

Salary cap

The NHL has not yet set a number on the cap as the final tallies of hockey-related revenue still have to be tabulated. Commissioner Gary Bettman expects it to be around $70 million, although the needle could move up slightly. For the sake of argument, let’s work off of that $70 million number.

The Bruins have 16 returning varsity players under contract for next season, as well as three more seasons of Marc Savard’s seemingly never-ending deal (this is the first year of the declining salary in Savard’s front-loaded contract, so although his cap hit remains $4.007 million dollars, the all-but-retired center will receive just $1.5 million in salary).

The Bruins have committed $61,979,644 in cap hits for 2014-15 (all figures via our friends at CapGeek), which includes the Savard money.

So using that $70 million assumption, the Bruins have $8,020,357 in cap space. However, they have to pay the back taxes on Jarome Iginla’s incentive-laden contract. Mostly due to the nearly $4 million owed Iginla in bonuses, the Bruins went well above the bonus cushion and will be penalized about $4.75 million against the cap.

So a $70 million salary cap for the other 29 teams is actually $65.25 million cap (or thereabouts) for the Bruins, leaving them about $3.25 million of room.

But the Bruins have the saving grace of long-term injured reserve. Should they exceed their ceiling, they can exceed it by Savard’s cap hit ($4.007 million) by placing his contract on LTIR again.

So all told, assuming the salary cap is $70 million, the Bruins have a little over $7.25 million in cap space.

Compliance buyouts

This soon-to-expire quirk of the new CBA has already been put to use, as the Sabres mercifully are in the process of bringing an end to Ville Leino’s tenure in Buffalo, as well as the Canucks and Stars plucking David Booth and Aaron Rome, respectively, from their rosters.

A primer on compliance buyouts: they’re the same as ordinary buyouts, so a player receives either one-third or two-thirds of his remaining salary, but the big selling point is they do not count against the salary cap. The window for any buyouts is June 15-30. This is the second and final window for compliance buyouts, which can be used twice and only on contracts signed before Sept. 15, 2012.

Chiarelli didn’t use a compliance buyout last summer, so he has both remaining in his back pocket. To open up cap space, he included Rich Peverley as part of the blockbuster trade with the Stars.

The Bruins’ top candidate for a compliance buyout would be Chris Kelly, who has two years left on a contract that carries a $3 million hit. Kelly has been displaced at center by Carl Soderberg and had back-to-back injury-plagued seasons. However, Kelly is currently an injured player — he had back surgery May 23 — and is therefore ineligible to be bought out.

Other candidates could include Gregory Campbell (one year, $1.6 million hit) and Daniel Paille (one year, $1.3 million hit), but neither would provide that much savings and their loss would leave holes in the roster.

Free agents

We already know Thornton has played his final game in a Spoked-B sweater. Others who can make the same claim include Andrej Meszaros and Corey Potter.

In the unrestricted category, the big question surrounds Jarome Iginla, and the small one Chad Johnson

Iginla is coming off a one-year bonus-laden contract. The Bruins likely can’t afford a big cap hit from the soon-to-be 37-year-old, so his willingness to accept another bonus-laden deal — a quirk allowed only in one-year deals to players at 35 or older — may dictate whether he returns to Boston or not. Iginla’s decision will dictate much of the rest of Boston’s offseason.

Johnson could return, but may want to look for a bigger opportunity elsewhere. The Bruins could plug in Niklas Svedberg, a restricted free agent.

Speaking of RFAs, Reilly Smith and Torey Krug need new deals and could double their current salaries. Matt Bartkowski could also get a slight bump in pay after his first full season in the NHL.

Trading season

This could be one of the busier two weeks in trades in quite a while.

There’s a perfect storm of events conspiring to make this ripe for traders. A new era of general managers have taken over in the last six months (seven in the last six months, plus a new president in Toronto) who are eager to begin contracting the kind of team they want. Carolina, Pittsburgh and Vancouver all have new men in the corner office that could unload some talent.

There are big names likely to be available. Centers Jason Spezza and Ryan Kesler are expected to be moved, and the Sharks are rumored to be shopping Joe Thornton and Patrick Marleau.

Executives have also learned that free agency is a fool’s errand. Championship rosters are built through the draft and trades. When the GMs convene in Philadelphia for the draft next week, one week before free agency, many will look to address their immediate needs through trades.

This could play to the Bruins’ advantage. They have pieces to move (extra defensemen, prospects like Ryan Spooner, Alexander Khokhlachev and David Warsofsky) and, if Iginla falls through, a need for a right-shot wing.

Key dates

Whip out your iCalendar and mark these dates down, some of which have already hit.

- June 15-30: Buyout period, including compliance buyouts

- June 25-30: Free agent interview period

- June 27-28: NHL Draft in Philadelphia (the Bruins select 25th in the first round)

- July 1: Free agent contracts can be signed

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